Reel Deal: Herky, jerky 'Green Zone' a political nightmare

Robert McCune

Friday

Mar 26, 2010 at 12:01 AMMar 26, 2010 at 8:41 AM

It’s a double dose of Damon in this week’s Reel Deal column. The actor is so well-rounded that he slips with ease from comedy to action to drama – a trait that is shared by only a select few in Hollywood today. The characters he plays in “Green Zone,” still in theatrical release, and the new-to-DVD “The Informant!” couldn’t be any more different.

It’s a double dose of Damon in this week’s Reel Deal column.

Matt Damon is an Oscar-nominated actor (for last year’s “Invictus” and “Good Will Hunting” in 1997) and an Oscar-winning screenwriter (which he shared with Ben Affleck for “Good Will Hunting”).

Among other things, he’s been a racist prep school student (“School Ties,” 1992), a fallen angel (“Dogma,” 1999), a serial killer with an identity crisis (“The Talented Mr. Ripley,” 1999), a smooth-talking con man (“Oceans Eleven ... Twelve ... and Thirteen”), a trained assassin with a serious case of amnesia (“The Bourne Identity ... Supremacy ... and Ultimatum”), half of a conjoined twin (“Stuck on You,” 2003) and a Boston cop on the take (“The Departed,” 2006).

The actor is so well-rounded that he slips with ease from comedy to action to drama – a trait that is shared by only a select few in Hollywood today.

The characters he plays in “Green Zone,” still in theatrical release, and the new-to-DVD “The Informant!” couldn’t be any more different.

AT A THEATER NEAR YOU ...

Best to dispatch with the comparisons right away.

“Green Zone” isn’t a fourth installment of the popular “Bourne” series, though both feature the same star (Matt Damon) and director (Paul Greengrass).

In terms of an Iraq War drama, it’s also basically the opposite of last year’s phenomenal “The Hurt Locker.”

“The Hurt Locker” played heavy on emotion as it tracked three bomb-defusing soldiers on the tail end of a tour of duty. It also steered clear of politics and avoided making any sort of ruling on the merits of the war itself.

On the other hand, “Green Zone,” based on a nonfiction book, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” by former Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran, is pretty much all politics – and at its heart condemns the war and “the lies and liars” that started it.

Damon’s in full action-hero mode as Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller, who leads a team of soldiers on raids of suspected weapons of mass destruction sites in Iraq.

There’s no real suspense involved here as we all know how these searches turn up – empty.

Miller’s among a few who aren’t willing to shrug, nod their heads and pretend that the war’s all going according to plan.

He’s become a squeaky wheel, at least in part because his own job performance has been called into question by bureaucrats who insist that WMDs exist, and troops just aren’t acting on the intel reports fast enough.

He has allies in an ostracized CIA honcho (Brendan Gleeson), a pesky reporter (Amy Ryan) and an Iraqi man who insists he’s only looking out for his country and himself in providing a tip that starts to unravel the whole web of deceit.

But none, apparently, wield more power than the Pentagon pencil-pusher played by Greg Kinnear, who, we’re led to believe, can start and stop wars with the wag of his forked tongue.

If only things were so simple in the real world.

Much of the movie is set in the hallowed halls of government or the turbulent streets of Iraq.

But one scene in particular shows a side of the Iraq war I don’t recall seeing before. Soldiers in full battle regalia stick out like a sore thumb when they enter a side of the “Green Zone” that looks more like Club Med than the dusty battlefield. Shapely ladies in bikinis and men in trunks sip drinks adorned with colorful little umbrellas poolside at an Iraqi palace seized as a war-free base of U.S. operations.

It’s a short reprieve from the jarring, jostling footage from the frontlines.

On the Dramamine scale, I’d give “Green Zone” a 7 – a chase scene toward the end might be especially nausea-inducing for certain moviegoers. Wouldn’t be surprised if someone lost their popcorn and created a little “green zone” of their own in the theater aisle.

ON DVD

Loose lips sink ships.

In “The Informant!” it’s Matt Damon’s gums that are doing all the flapping.

And boy can Whitacre blow that whistle. He also has the gift of the gab.

Between his inner dialogue (his every thought – some inspired, mostly idiotic) and his constant yammering, Damon does more lines as Whitacre than Johnny Depp as cocaine smuggler George Jung in 2001’s “Blow.”

The ship Whitacre’s out to sink belongs to agri-business giant Archer Daniels Midland, guilty of greedily price-fixing food additives in the 1990s.

Except the delusional Whitacre, an up-and-coming executive at ADM, has the notion that by toppling the corrupt suits, he’ll be hailed a conquering hero and promoted directly to the top.

Meanwhile, his handlers at the FBI (played by Joel McHale and Scott Bakula) suspect, with good reason, that Whitacre’s not being completely honest with them. And his big mouth constantly jeopardizes their case.

As he fumbles with ungainly recording devices and bumbles through sting operations, he endears himself to the audience, even as annoying and deceitful as he is.

It’s also good to see Bakula back in the spotlight – I’ve been a fan since way back, when he was the time-traveling do-gooder Dr. Sam Beckett in “Quantum Leap,” which ran for 97 episodes from the late 1980s to mid-90s.

Interesting that the ’90s have given Bakula his latest big screen break – though I don’t really remember the decade quite as it’s depicted in “The Informant!” The bright colors and frumpy hairstyles seemed more reminiscent of the ’70s.

I thought we were cooler than that back then. But then, that was 20 years ago, and maybe my memory fails me.

He steals from the rich and gives to the poor ... and now he’s getting the “Gladiator” treatment from director Ridley Scott and star Russell Crowe. The two paired for that 2000 epic, which upon first blush looks eerily similar to their new collaboration, “Robin Hood.”

This time, it’s Crowe who plays the people’s bandit –¬ taking it places that Errol Flynn (in 1938’s “The Adventures of Robin Hood”), Disney (it was a cartoon in 1973), Kevin Costner (in “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” 1991) and even Carey Elwes (in the 1993 spoof, “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”) never could.

Cate Blanchett stars as Maid Marian in this take on the legend, which is scheduled for theatrical release May 14.

WHAT I’M WATCHING THIS WEEKEND ...

As far as new releases go, this weekend’s a toss-up between a family outing to the 3-D “How to Train Your Dragon” and the campy comedy “Hot Tub Time Machine.” Find out how the coin lands in next week’s Reel Deal.

Robert McCune is editor of The Independent in Massillon, Ohio. Contact him at 330-775-1124 or e-mail Robert.McCune@IndeOnline.com.